In my search for GeoTag-enabled search engines, I found an extension for the FireFox Browser. It's the FireFox GeoTags Reader extension. It places a small globe icon in the status bar. If the extension finds the GeoTags in the website you are viewing, it's blue; and if it does not, it's red.

So I downloaded it, installed it, and tried it. I navigated to my blog: red globe. I navigated to my resume: red globe. Hmpf, what a bummer.

I discovered the problem. GeoTags come in two flavors. The first flavor (the one invented by GeoURL is the ICBM tag. The ICBM tag takes its name from a UseNet feature where you gave the coordinates where one could shoot an InterContinental Ballistic Missle or ICBM at you. This tag takes the form of:

<meta name="ICBM" content="lat;long">

Of course, in XHTML, you have to close the meta tag. The other flavor is the GeoTags.com flavor, and it takes the form of:

<meta name="geo.position" content="lat;long">
<meta name="geo.placename" content="Place Name">
<meta name="geo.region" content="ISO 3166-1 Country/Region Code">

Come to find out the Extension was only recognizing the ICBM flavor of GeoTags.

However, the cool thing about the FireFox Extensions window is that when you click About with the extension selected, it gives you information that includes the e-mail address of the author. So I fired off a quick e-mail, and the author responded back that the extension should have worked with both flavors. Furthermore, he had fixed the extension and e-mailed it to me. Pretty cool. He told me he'd get the new version up on the web later in the day (this was yesterday). He also shared some of the future features of the extension, and I must say that they are cool.

So as I wrap up these posts on GeoTagging, I have to ask, are you GeoTagging, and if not, why not?